The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams of West Virginia University. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Big East Conference. The school’s mascot is also known as the Mountaineer. Football is played at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium.

USF football

The Syracuse University Orange is the nickname used by the athletic teams of Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Big East Conference. The school’s mascot is Otto the Orange. Teams were previously known (until 2004) as the Orangemen and Orangewomen. The men’s basketball, football, and men’s lacrosse teams play in the Carrier Dome. Other sports facilities are located at the nearby Manley Field House complex.

USF footballThere has been unprecedented growth in the school’s football program. USF began football play as a 1-AA independent in 1997, moved to 1-A in 2001, then to Conference USA in 2003, and now competes in the Big East conference (as of 2005) with its Bowl Championship Series (BCS) tie-ins.

Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included Yale University, Columbia University and long-time rival, Princeton University. In light of the schools beginning to engage in athletic games in the 1860s, these four schools met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan on 19 October 1873 to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate competition, and particularly to codify the new game of football.